The purpose of this project was to determine if the addition of a laboratory measurement, i.e., measurement of serum cholesterol, would increase the effectiveness of nutrition counseling in young men. Subjects were a random sample of 45 healthy male students from a Midwestern university, between the ages of 20 and 25 who were consuming >30% of kcal from fat. Men were randomly assigned to one of four groups; nutrition counseling and measurement of serum cholesterol (NC + SC), nutrition counseling only (NC), measurement of serum cholesterol only (SC), or control (C). At weeks 1 and 6, participants completed a 24-hour recall, a 2-day food record, and a food frequency questionnaire. Analysis of variance and least squares means were used to compare change in dietary intake (percent calories from fat) from pre-to post-assessment. Fat intake decreased by 3.2% kcal from fat in the NC + SC group (P < 0.02), and by 2.7% kcal from fat in the NC group (P < 0.06). There were no significant changes in the SC or C groups. These results suggest that measurement of serum cholesterol may enhance the effectiveness of nutrition counseling in young adult males somewhat, however, the primary impact on reducing fat intake is from the nutrition counseling alone.